BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SITUATION IN BRCKO AREA IN BOSNIA

ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - The northern Bosnian town of Brcko was occupied by Serb forces on 30 April 1992. On that day at 4.45 a.m. Serb troops blew up a road bridge and a railway bridge across the Sava river, blocking all access roads into town. A large number of Croat and Moslem civilians were forced out, and the armed forces of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) and the then Bosnian Territorial Defence strengthened the lines of defence in the suburbs of Kozara, Rijeka, Brod and others. However, as the Serb offensive grew fiercer they had to retreat southwards to Dizdarusa and in the spring of 1993 even further south. HVO forces, backed by Bosnian army units, advanced on the western part of the municipality in September 1992, taking the villages of Markovic Polje and Gorice and a part of Krepsic. The Serb military launched a heavy counter-attacks and in two days rolled them back to the starting positions. The HVO made another attempt to seize those villages in late October that year but failed. Serb forces put up strong resistance and in a counter- attack pushed them back several kilometres to the south, around Poljaci and Ulovic. Military analysts disagree in their estimates in the press on the present balance of power in the area. Some say that the Serbs have brought in three army corps (about 30 thousand soldiers), while others believe 70 thousand or even more. The Serb military has allegedly deployed there more than 25 infantry brigades and powerful equipment, including 50 tanks, 100 armoured vehicles, 200 heavy guns, some 30 multiple rocket launchers and surface-to- surface missiles. According to those estimates, the armed forces of Bosnia- Herzegovina hold superiority in manpower but are considerably deficient in equipment. The so-called Serb corridor, a narrow tract of land some 20 km wide which provides a link between Serb-occupied territories in Bosnia and further west in Croatia and Serbia proper, is the narrowest around Orasje and Brcko. The town of Brcko is about 4 km away from the northern lines of the free territory, and the corridor in the Orasje-Brcko area is about 8 km across. The main road runs only a kilometre away from defence lines so that traffic can be obstructed by small arms fire. In that event, Serbs can use nearby side roads. Bosnian army forces and an HVO brigade are stationed south of the corridor. Several HVO brigades, which have pulled out of Serb- occupied towns in Bosanska Posavina region are positioned in Orasje in the north. In order to take full control of the corridor, Serb forces mounted the heaviest attacks from 11 to 24 April this year when they fired 20 thousand artillery rounds and carried out 20 infantry attacks on the strategic village of Boderiste controlled by the 108th HVO brigade. Before that, the heaviest Serb attack on the free Brcko area had been recorded in July 1993. According to the latest census, the Brcko municipality had a population of 87 thousand, of whom 44.4 percent were Moslems, 25.4 percent Croats, 20.8 percent Serbs and 9.5 percent others. Of 51 villages in the municipality, 26 were predominantly populated by Croats. Of almost 500 square kilometres of municipal land, Croats owned 44 percent. The Serb corridor goes through 10 predominantly Croat villages in the Brcko area, while 16 others are free. In the Serb-occupied part of the Brcko municipality only three villages had a majority Serb population before the outbreak of war - Potocari, Brezik Donji and Grbavica. The 1991 population census shows that over 28 thousand people lived in the Orasje municipality, of whom 75.3 percent were Croats, 15 percent Serbs, 6.7 percent Moslems and 3 percent of others. Almost all predominantly Croat villages remained under Croat control. However, of eight municipalities in Bosanska Posavina region (Bosanski Brod, Bosanski Samac, Brcko, Derventa, Gradacac, Modrica, Odzak, Orasje and northern parts of the Doboj municipality) none is completely free from Serb forces. The eight municipalities cover more than 2.5 thousand square kilometres of land and have a population of 361 thousand (128.7 thousand Croats, 104.8 thousand Moslems and 100.3 thousand Serbs). According to the Vance-Owen Plan, the Croat province of Bosanska Posavina would include 2,103 square kilometres inhabited by 142,4 thousand Croats or 56 percent, 47.3 thousand Moslems or 18 percent, 41 thousand Serbs or 16 percent and 23.5 thousand others or 9 percent. According to data provided by the HVO office in Orasje, 83 percent of land in this unit would belong to Croats and Moslems. The fall of Bosanski Brod to Serb forces on 9 September 1992 completed the Serb occupation of Bosanska Posavina region, leaving only the Orasje pocket in the HVO hands. Serb attacks in the region caused massive destruction. According to information released by the HVO a year ago, 2,446 defenders and over 1,500 civilians were killed, 8 thousand people were wounded of whom 500 remained disabled. About 120 thousand people were expelled from the region. Information provided by the Sarajevo Archbishopric shows that of 46 Catholic parishes with 160,010 believers in northern Bosnia only 7 were not occupied in full, in which lived 44,104 believers. Several dozen villages and several towns were destroyed, 25 churches were pulled down or damaged, some 50 factories were devastated, 4 bridges were downed and cattle killed. There are two oil refineries in the region, one in Modrica and the other in Bosanski Brod, both of which are under Serb control. 071232 MET may 94